Mission Monday: Native Plant Identification

Our mission at Golden Hills RC&D is to collaboratively develop and lead community, conservation, and cultural initiatives to improve our quality of life in rural western Iowa. Our "official" territory from our original organizational bylaws is an eight-county region in the southwestern portion of Iowa (Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby). In 2023, we added four more counties (Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, and Monona). Several projects extend beyond these 12 counties into more than 20 counties (learn more about where we work). ​

Our goals are to develop industries in local communities that utilize local resources; ensure healthy natural resources that meet the needs of agriculture, industry, private use, and recreational facilities; promote and enhance art, culture and historic resources in rural communities; collaborate with local governments and organizations on projects that benefit the environment; and work on projects that fill gaps in community services to benefit people of southwest Iowa.

We accomplish these goals by focusing our work in five program areas: outdoor recreation and tourism, land stewardship, water resources, local foods, and arts and culture. Today's Mission Monday focus is Land Stewardship.

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Since 2021, Golden Hills has worked with Dr. Tom Rosburg of Drake University, Chris Benda with Southern Illinois University, and Dr. Cynthia Lane to host virtual programs about plant identification and ecology.

Golden Hills is partnering with Dr. Tom Rosburg to host another series of virtual plant identification class series in early 2024!​

ID and Ecology for Viola in Iowa 
Monday, February 12 
7-830pm
$15 (+Eventbrite fees)
​Register here

ID and Ecology of Iowa Native Shrubs
February 26​
7:00-8:30pm
$15 (+Eventbrite fees)
​Register here

ID and Ecology of Elymus in Iowa
March 11
7:00-8:30pm
$15 (+Eventbrite fees)
​Register here

ID for Invasive and Native Look-alike Plant Species in Iowa
March 25
7:00-8:30pm
$15 (+Eventbrite fees)
​Register here

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For more information about this year's classes, as well as a listing of previous year's classes and recordings, visit goldenhillsrcd.org/plantid.html

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